A/N: Hello...! this chapter is really the least humorous (but that's because i've been feeling very depressed lately, due to my family going on this trip to California in the middle of June and other, much more personal reasons, which i will not talk about because, mostly, it's not your bussiness. Yes i realize i just sounded like a total prat, but whatever.) Sorry about this chapter, and i really do need some ideas for more funnier chapters...bleh. Well, once again, i dedicate this chapter to rubber ducky 9, my wonderful beta! And, here, i present to you chapter 5!
Chapter 5: Black Vapor
Instead of either waking up in heaven or on a hospital bed, I opened up my eyes and found myself in the boys' dormitory on someone's bed. I wondered vaguely if I had drank a little too much earlier that afternoon and had gone a bit too far with some random boy (I sincerely hoped it wasn't Potter), but then I remembered what had really happened, how Malfoy had gotten mad at me and cursed me with some dark arts spell. As I sat up my ribs rubbed together painfully, my throat was starched and dehydrated.
I hacked out a dry cough and, instead of hurting my throat more by talking, looked around and saw piles of clothes in random, miscellaneous stacks around the room (which, really, wasn't that different from my own room.) Chocolate wrappers littered both the floor and nightstands alike. A few scarves and hats were scattered on pillows, bedposts, and closet doors.
Unlike most girls, this mess did not appall me nor did I think it was disgusting. This was mostly because I was used to such messes as these (and worse) mostly because I was the one making trashy mess like this all the time. It was one of the reasons why I was hardly ever in my own dorm (suitably, to being continually kicked out so the girls who were neat-freaks could clean the crap up.)
I looked at the nightstand next to the bed I occupied and saw a picture of Potter and Black. In it, they were in their third year; just starting to get their dashing looks that they had now. In the picture, Potter still had messy hair, but it looked goofy and mildly like he wore a too-huge-for-his-head wig. His glasses made it all the worse though because they practically illuminated his face, bringing out his eyes and making him look scarily like Sybil Trelawney, a girl a couple of years above them in Ravenclaw, who wore a gypsy-like costume every day.
Black, of course, had black hair falling in his eyes in a devilish way and his eyes sparkled with mischief. He almost looked cute, if it were not for the impish look on his face as he discreetly tapped Potter on the head and laughed as he became green-haired and red-eyed.
Well, the good thing about that picture is that I now know that it isn't some random guy that tried to do something with me, but Potter or Black! Great, my day has just been getting better and better!
I heard the dorm's door open and close and voices filling the room. I quickly closed my eyes and pretended to be asleep.
"So, Moony how does that work again? Besides the Super Sonic Spell, what else could we add? Merlin, I wish James were here, but he's stuck up in that measly old library looking up DADA stuff, he could definitely help—," Black's voice cut through the silence, chattering on until he saw me sleeping there.
Suddenly, he exclaimed, "Dang, Prongs is good! How the hell was he able to get her in his bed?"
I peeked through my half-closed eyelids and saw Black shaking his head bewilderingly, "Even though she showed some very obvious signs of attraction to him earlier in Charms, I didn't think she was that hot for him." Great, it turns out I am in Potter's bed. How lucky can I be?
He whistled low and muttered to himself, "I have got to learn that trick!" Ewh! He is way too perverted for his own good.
The door opened once more and Potter walked in, carrying a stack of books (McGonagall would be so proud!) When he saw me, he asked, baffled, "How can she still be sleeping?"
Black looked over towards Potter and stared incredulously, "Prongs, you have a single girl in your bed and all you ask is why she isn't awake! Mate, you have some serious issues to sort out." He shook his head and looked down sadly, muttering about how he had not taught him well enough.
Potter looked over at him and stared, "Padfoot, dude, you are so perverted! After Charms I found her practically passing out in a hallway with Malfoy, suffocating. This purple smoke was all around her; it looked like some sort of spell or something. Malfoy must've gotten really mad at her. She was out cold when I finally got to her, after getting Malfoy away, so I brought her here. Pomfrey, for all the medical stuff she knows, isn't going to be able to find out what's wrong with Evans. That curse was strong and some of the Easingnee's Sore Throat Remedy potion (that I stole from the hospital wing's cupboard) didn't do anything. I doubt we have very long before we find out what's wrong with her and to fix it."
Forgetting about pretending to be asleep, I sat up in bed and rasped out a "What!" They all stared at me surprised, Then potter said, continuing on with his story, "That's why I've been in the library looking for books that tell what's wrong with her or something to what's wrong with her and how to stop it."
"Well, then, let's get to work!" Black hopped over and grabbed the books, dumping them on Potter's nightstand and grabbing one himself to read. His was, laughingly so, titled Dark Art Defense for Dummies. Shrugging, Lupin and Pettigrew followed and both walked to their beds or the floor to start reading. Potter snatched one titled Dark Arts: a Century of Evil and sat down next to me. Smiling, I reached over him and took one called Spells, Curses, and Jinxes to Befuddle the Mind.
We read like that for hours and only stopping to command Pettigrew to go to the kitchens, with requests of apple dumplings, chocolate chip biscuits, and lots of Grimrim soda. By the time it was six, we had only found out that house elves made their own stash of apple dumplings, hidden from view. Or so we had theorized.
We had finished all the books Potter had gotten and, depressingly, we were out of resources.
I sighed and grabbed an old quill that looked vaguely familiar and a crumpled piece of parchment from Potter's nightstand. I titled the parchment Will and Testament. Black and Lupin looked over at me weirdly, staring while Potter tried reading over my shoulder. After a few minutes of thinking and then realizing that I neither had nothing to give precious or even remotely useful nor any friends to give anything to. Oh phoo.
I sighed and slammed the quill back on the nightstand (when I realized it was the one Potter had shown to me in McGonagall's class, the one he had poked me in the back repeatedly)crumpled the paper up moiré and threw it angrily, where it incidentally hit Black on the head and rebounded. I muttered sheepishly 'sorry' and crossed my arms angrily. Potter nudged me and got up saying, in a heroic poise (one arm on his hip the other pointing upwards) and I could just imagine a cape flowing behind him, "Come, my friends (and enemy), we must move forwards!" and he gestured out the door, saying, "There are more books in the library! Onwards we go!"
And he pulled me up and tried carrying me bridal-style (which, by the way, did not work, but instead gave me an overwhelming headache when he accidentally dropped me) out the door. I wondered vaguely to myself why he was doing this (being nice to me and helping me find out what was wrong, not carrying and dropping me) and found that I would've done something of the same nature for him, despite my not-so-likeable attitude towards him.
888
Black and Pettigrew picked out books from shelves as Lupin, Potter and I read them. Oddly, Lupin had a problem with reading around other people and so he went off to one corner while Potter and I sat next to each other at a table, reading separately from our books.
"Ooh, look here," I said, pointing at a paragraph and reading it out loud, "These spells and curses are distinguished as either a Coughing (A/N: pun slightly intended) Spell, a Gagging Xelfer, or a Ygrella Spell. These spells are often mistaken for symptoms of a cold or other type of common sickness and not taken very seriously. Coughing spells do not last long, up to five minutes, possibly ten, ("Well, that rules that one out.") and causes an itchy, sore throat afterwards.
"Coughing Spells, hence their name, make you cough dramatically…blah…blah...blah…There it just yaks on about what it causes and then it talks about ygrella curses (they swell up your throat and give you hives.) Here it is, it talks about the Gagging Xelfer. 'The gagging xelfer is a dark (and very illegal) curse that causes the victim to choke uncontrollably for ten minutes, more or less, then to fall unconscious. This allows the vapor of the curse to travel down the victim's lungs and settle in the victim's body and, per se, "digest" (it does not go through one's bowels and out the other end. It just settles in the stomach region.)
"After a while, the victim's body gets use to the curse. Once it does, it slowly creeps back up and gnaws away your breathing time left. It then proceeds to gag the victim once again, but this time it kills you. There are so few and varied counter-curses for this that only a couple of spell books in the world have the contents of it in them. From the time the black vapor reaches the victim, the victim has only twenty-four hours left to live." I looked up at Potter and we stared at each other, wide-eyed. Now I was really scared, getting the overwhelming feeling and concept of what might happen to me was, truth be told, terrifyingly daunting. I might not live.
Potter set a determined face and said simply, "Well, then…We better find one of those spell books." And he looked at me with such unwavering sincerity that I might have possibly just hugged him right there.
A/N: Well, hoped you liked it and again, hope you have some ideas because i've found myself at a dead end here... And... HERE ARE THE REPLIES TO REVIEW!
amarvi: eh... i now give blessings to your amazing feet (i hope they're clean... :.winks:.) i do hope you have some ideas for me, and, no worries whether they be cursed or not! DANG IT, I NEED IDEAS! .:collapses on shoulder, sobbing.: thank you for reviewing!
rubber ducky 9: yes, no need to be riminded of how awfully, terribly guilty i feel. i am so absolutely sorry! .:sends her one huge hug, almost throwing her to the floor from the impact.: Does, ermm... a Cheering Charm make you feel any better?
A. Lynn the Poet: ahh... an idea... indeed... maybe i shall go on with you there... i like it.. cackles, high-giggly
IrEpEiLyElOwInXueVaNs: Gosh, that took a while to spell your name... heh heh.. man, you are way too nice! thank you so much for reviewing and being one of the sweetest, kindestreviewers EVER! well, lily's attitude is a bit unacceptable, but ah well... honestly, i want to give her friends but i fear making a friend for her being either A) a Mary Sue, B) a depressing gothic, C) one of those friends who is infatuated, or has a crush, on Sirius, or D) one of those fake preps. Yep... i have a long way to go... .:smiles.: thanks for being awesome!
WEll, any and all ideas are deeply appreciated! and, even though i haven't used any of you peoples' ideas yet, does not mean i won't. oh and, GUESS WHAT? I GOT 20 REVIEWS! How cool is that! .:jumps up and down excitedly.: yeeh!